Sustainable Ambition Forum - 01.13.22
Hello friends!
Welcome to 2022!
I hope you are coming off December and the holidays having found time to slow down, rest, and get rejuvenated. And in turn, my hope is that you were able to fill up your resilience stores through experiences with family and friends and doing things you love.
I personally am starting out the year seeking a bit more of that and embracing the concept of “wintering,” which I feature in the round-up below. Perhaps it will inspire you, as well, to start the year at a pace that suits you.
As part of this idea of looking within, in this newsletter I’m featuring the idea of personal exploration and planning a more sustainable+ambitious start to the new year.
I’d like to invite you to join me for a 4-part series I’m doing on the podcast Planning a More Sustainable+Ambitious Year. See details below!
As I mentioned at the end of last year, the podcast series accompanies the launch of the Sustainable Ambition 12-month Workbook+Planner to help you build your Life+Work Resilience Rx. It’s now ready for pre-order! (More details below.)
I also want to suggest considering doing your planning with a group of friends or a group at work. Doing this work as part of a community can support you in setting intentions, holding yourself accountable, providing encouragement, and learning together along the way. This first discussion guide accompanies the podcast series and offers prompts for discussion. Workshop guides to accompany the workbook+planner will be coming later this month.
I’m excited to kick-off 2022 with you and grateful you let me into your in-box. My mission is to help people attain more joy, satisfaction, and fulfillment in their careers from decade to decade with more ease, less angst, and avoiding burnout, while still being ambitious on their own terms. I hope I make a small difference for you in this way.
If you have feedback or areas of interest you’d like me to explore here in the newsletter or on the podcast, I’m all ears! Please send me an email at info@sustainableambition.com.
Wishing you a very happy new year. Here’s to making it more sustainable+ambitious!
Warmly,
Kathy
Join me for a 4-part series to help you plan a more sustainable+ambitious year.
Create your own plan, learning more about yourself, setting your 2022 ambitions, defining your life+work resilience Rx, and planning your calendar to help you both stretch and sustain yourself in your life+work this year.
Episode #42, Part 1: My Ambitions: My Next 12 Months
Listen on Overcast.fm here or on our website here
Episode #43, Part 2: My Sustainable: My Life+Work Resilience Rx
Listen on Apple here or on our website here
You can also find the podcast, subscribe, and listen on Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Overcast.
Now Ready for Pre-Order!
The Sustainable Ambition 12-Month Workbook+Planner:
Your Life+Work Resilience Rx
Want to kick off your year with a better plan around how you want to stretch yourself in the coming year, while also sustaining yourself?
You can now pre-order the Workbook+Planner to help you take back control and plan a more ambitious and sustainable life+work for the 12-months ahead!
Find it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Additional colors coming to the Sustainable Ambition website soon!
The Round-Up
Reading: “The Courage to be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon that Shows you How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness” by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. I picked this up based on a recommendation. I’ll be honest in saying I found it a little hard to read. So why am I featuring it? Well, it still held my attention as I closed the year, AND I do appreciate the philosophical principles to free oneself from many mindsets that shackle us and impede our happiness like taking on other people’s “tasks” and worrying about what people think about us. I also appreciate its views on work around making a contribution. If you want to start the year a little lighter, it’s worth a peruse.
Listening: I appreciated this On Being podcast episode with Katherine May, author of “Wintering.” This link brings you to a perfect place in the conversation where she reads from the book and talks about what wintering is, “flourishing in lean times.” She talks about wintering being about the withdrawing, maximizing limited resources, vanishing from sight. It being a time for reflection, recuperation, replenishment, and rest. Ultimately, it is the time of transformation. I have to say that I’m attracted to this concept at the start of this year. I think I’m going to go into hibernation a bit until spring! Who’s with me?
Referencing: And to this point of wintering, I thought it was helpful to revisit some hygge principles that can help us learn how to thrive during this season and as some of us have to revert to hunkering down yet again.
Watching: Are you a snowboarder by chance? I’m not, but that didn’t keep me from appreciating this documentary about Jake Burton, the founder of Burton Snowboards. It’s a wonderful story about someone following a love and living life full out. I also happen to love entrepreneurship and business and brand building stories like this, mixed with the soul of an individual who brought a level of intensity to his life and work. Talk about Sustainable Ambition and someone who did it his own way.
Smiling: Transport yourself to different parts of the world through sound. Hear different cities’ radio stations while driving around.
ICYMI... A Practice: 9 Questions to Close Out the Year & Welcome 2022
2021 was another unprecedented year, and as we continue to come out of our cocoons and shape our new worlds, the end of year and the beginning of another is a moment for reflection.
Give yourself permission and make time to look back at your year and look forward to the one ahead. I offer 9 Questions to reflect, evaluate, and tune-in. Then have a little fun writing a closing note to 2021 to commemorate the year and a welcome letter to ring in 2022.
I hope you had a celebratory, calming, and brilliant close to the year! And wish you a bright 2022 ahead.
Get the Questions here >
Or, if you prefer to follow along with me on the podcast, find the episode on Apple Podcasts or here on our website.
The Monthly Progress Practice: January
At the beginning of each year, we share our Monthly Progress Practice. Progress is made through small, consistent action. Practice makes progress. We offer a monthly guidance on small actions or inquiries to inspire positive change this year.
Our guidance for January: Envision. Go big and make the year roaring! What’s your BHAG? How do you want to stretch yourself? Where do you want to take small, consistent action to make a big impact?
Find Your Guide:
Find the perfect guide to match your journey.
“A [person] who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door.”
— Confucius
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is give us.”
— J. R. R. Tolkien
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SUSTAINABLE AMBITION™ IS ABOUT CRAFTING A FULFILLING CAREER TO SUPPORT YOUR LIFE FROM DECADE TO DECADE.
It is centered around articulating your personal definition of success and achieving that without burnout while honoring your personal aspirations and ambitions as they ebb and flow over time. The end game—more fulfillment and ease in your professional and personal life, while still being ambitious.
We offer 1:1 Executive Coaching, Leadership Coaching, or Career Strategy Coaching, as well as VIP Leadership Brand Sessions and Workshops on a range of Sustainable Ambition topics. We also provide tips and inspiration, advice on career management over the decades, guides on key Sustainable Ambition topics of interest, and coverage of tools and inspiration.